New Transplant Process Announced
Spain has a much-admired 'presumed consent' system, which means it now has the best record in the world at organ donations, with 34 donations happening per million of population, as opposed to 13 per million in the UK.
It has gone for what is called the 'soft' opt-out system, which means that relatives' views are sought and that they can refuse consent, even if the deceased person had been happy to donate.
The Spanish model is widely seen as the most effective and also one of the most ethical. It has trained many co-ordinators who are extremely skilled at talking to relatives at an early stage of their relatives' illness and helping them to come to a decision.
In an interview with The Observer today, Donaldson said: 'We have one of the lowest donation rates in Europe, something I'm not proud of. With a thousand people or more dying on the waiting lists, and a lot more suppressed demand, with doctors not referring patients because they know there is no hope for them, that is an awful lot of people dying. There is also an issue of their very poor quality of life. If you are on permanent dialysis, your life is very restricted.
'We would see a dramatic change if we moved to an opt-out system. I think at the moment a lot of families don't know what their relatives would want to do. They can then find themselves in these extremely distressing situations, where the person you love is dying, and faced with the uncertainty of what they would have wanted, the default position is to say no.' Donaldson, a public health expert who began life as a surgeon, has been pleasantly surprised by the way in which his proposal for a change has been greeted by the public and the media.
'When I produced the annual report I felt there was relatively strong public opinion in favour of it.' This is an extract taken from an article by Denis Campbell & Jo Revill.
